Bitrates
Obv 320 kbps is beautiful. .wav are even better.
In a club that could hold a few hundred people, say 400-600 what is safe to play out?
I have reached good results on 192 VBR.
But still… the higher, the better! 
I have never had a problem with 320. If all the pieces of the chains are solid then you should be fine
In my oppinion you should never go under 320kbps on a big soundsystem, and for an even better mp3, use the Lame mp3 encoder ;]
understand the difference between CBR and VBR (constant bit rate / Varible bit rate)
CBR will result in better quality
Really if you just a mobile Dj… anything above 128 vbr is fine.
For club systems i would recommend 320 but you could get away with 192. Really unless you are audibly inclined the avg folk wont know.
There are many flamewars about this all over the internet. This is just my 2 cents from my own experience
I agree on that one K!
Whats funny is i got shit for sayin that on another forum… lol thanks for backin me tekki
Variable bit rate(VBR) increases the bit rate for parts of the song that require a higher bit rate resulting in unpredictable file sizes but higher quality.
Constant bit rate(CBR) a constant and will not fluctuate at all during the recording process, so regions that may requires a higher bit rate will undergo more quality loss than the VBR process.
If you record two mp3s, one at 192 CBR and one at 192 minimum VBR the VBR recording will be a better quality recording because the minimum quality of the file is 192 and shoots up in parts that require a higher bitrate. Its all about getting the settings right
That said if you have a crap VBR encoder the CBR will be a higher quality - i suggest using LAME.
Is there any other than LAME?
That’s why I got your back K. 
i use 320. sounds good to me and the people are always on the dancefloor so i guess it sounds good to them too!
I can sometimes get away with 160 CBR in the club but I try not to dip below 192. Just depends on how well the track was mastered sometimes.
[quote=“Soup, post:11, topic:474, username:Soup”]
I can sometimes get away with 160 CBR in the club but I try not to dip below 192. Just depends on how well the track was mastered sometimes.
[/quote]Plus how it was ripped to mp3. I’ve found some 160s and 192s that sound better than higher bitrate files; more clarity, headroom. I’m not sure how people are screwing up the encoding process that badly but it’s common.
yes there is an other encoder than lame, but it´s not free to use. it´s from the inventors of mp3 ,the Fraunhofer MPEG Layer-3 Audio Decoder
[QUOTE=tekki;4547]Is there any other than LAME?
Surely there’s lots of other encoders than LAME, but every .mp3 sound geek on the internet seem to agree, that this is the leeding in size/quality!
Personaly I clearly hear the depth different compared to eg. iTunes encoder, there’s are really big difference!
Also if your on a Mac, the iTunes-LAME application makes everything a lot easier if you still like to convert using iTunes. Simply insert your CD, select it in iTunes and the press go on iTunes-Lame (after you have chosen your quality setup ofcourse).
Enjoy your new and better sounding mp3’s!
it seems that a good mp3 is often only as good as its encoder.
a LAME encoded mp3 from a wav source is usually very good at 256 or above.
Surely there’s lots of other encoders than LAME, but every .mp3 sound geek on the internet seem to agree, that this is the leeding in size/quality!
Personaly I clearly hear the depth different compared to eg. iTunes encoder, there’s are really big difference!
Also if your on a Mac, the iTunes-LAME application makes everything a lot easier if you still like to convert using iTunes. Simply insert your CD, select it in iTunes and the press go on iTunes-Lame (after you have chosen your quality setup ofcourse).
Enjoy your new and better sounding mp3’s![/QUOTE]
The question was retorical. In other my eyes LAME encoding is the best. It is supposed to be the “scene’s best” too, while using it through Exact Audio Copy.